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The Distribution of Federal Taxes

The Congressional Budget Office released a report explaining that the top quintile of earners represent 67.9% of total tax liabilities, while they constitute 50.8% of total before-tax income. In contrast, the middle quintile represents 9.4% of tax liabilities, while they constitute 14.7% of taxable income.

Normative arguments aside, this means that the top 20% of earners contribute a proportionally larger share of their income to taxes than does the middle 20%.